Under The Banner Of Hope
by Magic halfblood
Summary: Seven years since legendary teenage superspy has gone missing. His story revealed to the world, as well as his death. But there are still a few who believe it takes a lot more to kill Alex Rider.
1. Chapter 1

"We've been having trouble sir with Rider. It seems that no matter how much we psychologically alter him, we can't change a couple of his traits."  
"Such as what."  
"Such as his need to be a- ah, how can I put it- hero. We've tried putting him in certain situations, hostage, team, and never could he leave anyone behind. It seems he is of Rider blood through and through."  
"That is most unfortunate."  
"Yes we thought so too."  
"Unless..."  
"Unless what?"  
"Unless we use it to our advantage."

23 year old Falcon woke up to the smell of fresh welsh mud after hours of rain last night. He got up and changed into his training clothes then went to wake up his unit leader: Cheetah.  
"Ughhnmmm" came the reply.  
"You're awake, good, you have fresh mud to look forward to."  
His team leader buried his head into his pillow muttering a few choice of swear words.  
Seemingly satisfied with his work, falcon went to wake up the other two members: hawk and leopard. Hawk was the technician and communicator , easy to wake up, and leopard the medic, who slept like a rock.  
Falcon shook Hawk until he heard an audible groan then decided that the most effective method was to drag leopard out of the bed, out of the hut and into the welsh mud.

10 minutes later, 1 angry SAS soldier, two exasperated and 1 grinning left their S-unit hut and made their way to breakfast.  
"What I don't understand" cheetah said speaking to falcon, "is how you always wake up on time. No alarm or anything, you just wake up?"  
"Haven't you already asked me that question?"  
"Yh. But you never answer properly?"  
"I always answer properly: I don't know."  
Cheetah hit the back of falcon's head and heard an indignant cry.  
"What I don't understand is why you feel the need to drag me out into the middle pits of hell just to wake me up." Leopard growled.  
"Well if you woke easily," Falcon countered, "there would be no need for hell."  
Leopard muttered something unflattering under his breath.  
"What was that?" Falcon asked.  
"I said-"  
"Anyway" said Cheetah, "today we have shooting first thing, then running, both sprint on the course and long run. Then swimming, and finally a medic lecture in the evening."  
Everybody groaned at the mention of the lecture.  
"The medic lectures are interesting you know" defended Leopard.  
"No they're not" grumbled Hawk. "Just because you're a medic freak, doesn't mean everyone else is"  
They entered the canteen together, got there food and sat at their assigned table.  
"You know Falcon, we were wondering what your name was?"  
It was a running joke in their unit. They all knew each other's name apart from falcon's, and have given up on trying to find out. But it had become a habit, they kept asking, maybe having the tiniest hope that one day they would find out.  
Apparently today wasn't the day.  
"It's falcon." Falcon said, grinning.  
He was saved from having to answer anymore questions by sudden commotion to their right.  
They quickly got up to see what was going on, less they miss any important gossip.  
"What's going on?" Cheetah asked bear from L-unit.  
"Tiger was just speaking to the sergeant. Apparently K-unit are back from their latest mission."  
That explained the commotion. Not only did a unit come back from a mission, but a well known, well respected, famous unit had come back.  
"No way!" Leopard exclaimed. "Do you think they would share with us any details, maybe answer some of our questions."  
"We are here to train" Hawk scolded, "not fangirl about other units."  
Leopard stuck his tongue out and everybody sniggered.  
"It's not like they even know us" Hawk muttered under his breath.  
"That's not all" Tiger said, "apparently they are going to be our instructors for a month or two starting from after tomorrow."  
"No way" leopard almost squealed. "No way-"  
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK THIS IS?" Shouted the sergeant, cutting off all sentences. "A BINGO CLUB? GET OUT OF HERE AND GO TO YOUR TRAINING!"  
It would be accurate enough to say that every soldier ran out of the canteen.

Shooting was first for s-unit and it was common knowledge that Falcon was they best shot in his unit. Actually it was common knowledge that falcon was the best full stop. His natural skill was unnatural. But they knew that ever since falcon was young, about the age of 6, he decided that he wanted to be a soldier, so dedicated the rest of his life to achieving his dream. And apparently, his uncle strongly supported him, so was able to arrange things like martial arts clubs, and shooting lessons.  
Though that explained the physical skill, it didn't explain some other stuff. Other stuff which nobody ever asked about or ever mentioned.  
Shooting went by in a breeze, only Leopard and Cheetah arguing about who ranked second place.  
The sprint on the course was a draw between falcon and cheetah, and on the long run it was a draw between Falcon and Leopard, who had run the marathon every year since he was 16.  
"What" Hawk would always pant, "I don't understand, is why Falcon is so good at everything?"  
And Falcon would always, always, grin at him in that unnerving way of his, as if Hawk's bare existence was amusing to him.  
He would shrug his shoulders and say 'I've been practicing since I was six.'  
And that would be the end.  
Maybe the others took this as a suitable explanation, or maybe they had the natural instinct to realise that if they pushed for more answers, the result will be undesirable.  
Lastly they had swimming, and with that, came one of the biggest shocks. The first time they had ever seen Falcon swim, there were gasps of horror, they were unable to peel their eyes away from his upper body.  
But they had asked, still ignorant enough to not know what those lines across his torso were, what the mark above his heart was.  
And they had asked.  
Asked because falcon didn't even seem the slightest embarrassment or having the need to hide.  
"What?" Leopard had asked, who at the time was already pursuing his medical career, "what happened to you?"  
Falcon had looked down at himself, as if just remembering his scars, and shrugged his shoulders. Shrugged his shoulders like it was nothing.  
"When I was 14, I was at home alone and I accidentally left the cooker on, there was a fire and smoke. When I smelt it, I remember, I came running down the stairs tripped, fell. The stairs were metal. And the fire got to me before the fire brigade."  
They had all winced at the story. Winced because had known before hand of his quest for SAS, and that must have been a major set back.  
That evening, they had questioned him.  
Why he was home alone?  
His dad had been on a business trip and his mum had been out shopping.  
Why was there nobody to look after him?  
He didn't need a babysitter.  
He had frustratedly told them that he would appreciate it if they stopped interrogating him, and they had complied.

Swimming, Falcon had come first, Cheetah second, Hawk third, and finally Leopard.

Lunch passed as always, men grumbling about the lack of edible food, and staring at the mush on their plates.

It was lunch the day after, that an interesting conversation was brought up.

S-unit had sat next to L-unit, a very rare occurrence because of the hatred between the two unit leaders, but there had been nowhere else to sit when L-unit had entered late.  
To ease the tension between them, Bear had stroked up a conversation with Leopard.  
"K-unit are arriving today right?"  
"Yes" Leopard answered.  
"I don't mean to sound offensive, but I have a question and you seem to know about a lot of things."  
Leopard's eyes danced with mischief. "I may know more than others. Ask away"  
"I've heard rumours around, is it true that there was a kid who came to the camp about a decade ago, and he stayed with k-unit?"  
Suddenly the tension rose, and it had nothing to do with the feud.  
Unknown to all, Jaguar had tensed the most.  
"Are you" Leopard said slowly, "asking about Alex Rider?"  
And just like that, the entire hall had become silent, eyes turned to the speaker of the tabooed name.  
"I may be" Bear answered in the same tone.  
"There has been no exact dates given, but Alex Rider is said to have come to Brecon Beacons around the time of k-unit. I have no knowledge regarding whether or not he was put with them, that can only be confirmed by a person who was there at the time."  
Shark from a nearby table asked the next question, "would one of our current instructors know?"  
All eyes turned to him.  
"It is a high probability" Leopard answered.  
"Which instructor do we approach?" Asked Panther.  
"We could ask an instructor young enough to have been a recruit at the time," Rhino answered, "or old enough to have been an instructor."  
"Then comes the question of who would actually answer" Bear pointed out.  
"The old instructors look at us like we are something ugly found at the bottom of their feet. We have a better chance with the younger instructors." Hawk said.  
"Sergeant Smith?" Antelope suggested.  
"Everyone in agreement?" Leopard asked.  
And just like that, a conversation between two soldiers had become a mission across the recruits.

Coincidentally, by the magic of the devil, Instructor Smith walked through the doors.  
To avoid suspicion. The other soldiers swiftly brought back their pointless conversation.  
It had been subconsciously decided, that Leopard would be the one to ask.  
So he stood up and made his way to the instructor.  
"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt you,"  
The instructor turned around with irritated eyes.  
Damn this was already going bad.  
"Make it quick."  
Leopard took in a deep breath before he asked, "were k-unit the unit who trained with Alex Rider?"  
He felt the whole hall hold its breath, but he only focused on the sergeant, suddenly wondering if he would be binned for his daring.  
He saw a flash of anger mixed with something else-was that guilt, sweep across his face before it was scolded back to blank.  
It took a few moments before the instructor replied with an affirmative nod before he left the hall, forgetting whatever he came in for.  
"Well soldiers, there is your answer." Leopard declared. "The unit training us from tomorrow is the same unit that trained with Alex Rider for 10 days."  
And for some reason, even though k-unit was already known as one of the best units, this fact increased their credibility. For they had actually trained with the world's best spy.

Wolf sighed as his feet hit the fresh Welsh mud, it was good to be back.  
After passing selection, coming back for recap training had almost been enjoyable.  
And now they were back, for the final aspect of their training.  
"I feel almost nostalgic" Snake said absentmindedly.  
"Yh" eagle replied, "it seems like just yesterday, we were recruits, fighting for our spots to be SAS."  
"Now look at us" Fox said, "we are coming back to become instructors, same as the Devils who trained us."  
Eagle looked towards Wolf, "I feel sorry for the recruits already."  
Wolf glared at him, but didn't indulge the pitiful insult. "We better not keep the sergeant waiting" was all he said.

The sergeant watched the soldiers enter with something akin to pride, showing on his face. It only turned into a scowl when Eagle entered.  
"At ease soldiers." He said still scowling in Eagle's direction.  
Who knew the sergeant was one to hold a grudge?  
"You have now reached the end of your training, where you teach the next batch of maggots to become one of the British elite. It is a victory in itself that you have reached this stage, but now you must take the final leap.  
You will be in charge of 16 recruits, split into four units, S, L, D, and J. The number would most likely dwindle down to 8 by the end of their training, and I expect you to make sure that they are up to standards. You have the rest of today to plan, and tomorrow you begin. Any questions."  
"Yes sir" Eagle said smirking, and the Sergeant scowled. Wolf, not so subtly, stepped on Eagle's foot, to tell him to shut up.  
Obviously he didn't listen.  
"Can we still be binned?" Eagle asked  
The sergeant glared at him, while all his teammates let out an exasperated sigh.  
"Well can we?"  
"You can't" the sergeant growled, "but I can make an exception in your case."  
"Come on sir, you can't still be holding a grudge against me. It's been years since I last done anything."  
"You dyed my hair pink!" the sergeant exclaimed, before holding the bridge of his nose to regain his composure.  
"Go," he sighed, "you are dismissed, and if i ever hear another word come out of your mouth, then I'll personally ship you off to the landfill site."  
K-unit left the hut one by one, with Eagle last, who was grinning.

The sergeant collapsed in his chair, and rubbed his forehead. How Eagle managed to get through the SAS training without getting binned was beyond him. And now he had to deal with new recruits and Eagle.  
God help him.

Outside, Eagle was being subjected to a scolding by his unit leader, while the other two members were smirking from behind.  
"Do you have to get on the sergeants last nerves?" he was shouting. "You are SAS, act like it. If we become the first unit to be binned during the final aspect of training, then God help you for the hell I'm going to put you through."  
"All I did was ask a question" Eagle defended weakly.  
Wolf didn't even dignify that with a response. He just glared and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who Reviewed and added this story to their favourites. Just getting a notification letting me know that someone, somewhere has read what I've written goes a long way to making my day.

Thank you again, you guys are day-makers. (If that's even a word)

Disclaimer: Anything recognisable does not belong to me, sadly, that includes all the characters too.

* * *

Wolf sighed as he read which unit they would be teaching next: S-unit, consisting of Cheetah, Leopard, Falcon and Hawk, and they were teaching shooting for the fourth time that day.

The only thing that made them a tiny bit intrigued was that beside one of the members name, Falcon, there was an asterisk.  
As part of their training, they were given a file on each of the soldiers they would be training. The file contained only their code name, age and date of birth. As part of their assessment, they were to construct a file on each of the soldiers by the end of the two weeks.  
But the asterisk changed things around slightly. They weren't told what it meant, but they assumed it meant they had to pay closer attention to this person.  
Footsteps alerted them to the oncoming soldiers, so k-unit stood shoulder to shoulder, faces set, for the fourth time that day.  
The unit entered, the leader obviously first: cheetah, followed by three others. Their first task of meeting every unit, was to find out who was who. If they failed that task, then they might as well pack up and go home.  
"At ease soldiers" Wolf said. " we are k-unit and we will be overseeing parts of your training for the next 2 weeks." They probably already knew that from the way gossip travels around the camp.  
"I'm Wolf, to my right is Eagle, to my left is Fox, and next to him is Snake. Eagle will be in charge of this session."  
Eagle stepped up like every other time, "I'm the sharp shooter of this unit" he said by way of introduction, " I'm going to assess your aim on stationary targets before I split you up into moving targets. But first I'm going to time how long it takes you to disassemble and reassemble a standard SAS gun. Cheetah?"  
Cheetah, who k-unit now knew, stepped up and took one of the guns.  
"Go"  
He dismantled the gun and resembled it.  
"4 minutes 22 seconds. Good. Next hawk."  
Hawk did the same.  
"6 minutes 35 seconds. Leopard?"  
Leopard did it too, though he accidentally stumbled on a piece and had to start again.  
"8 minutes and 55 seconds. Finally falcon."  
If eagle wasn't already intrigued by the little asterisk by falcons name, he would have been by the small smirks and mirthful eyes of the other recruits.  
Falcon too disassembled and reassembled the gun.  
The only difference is, that he did it with such speed the eagle almost forgot to press the stop button.  
Eagle swallowed before reading out the time. "1 minute, 27 seconds"  
"Too bad falcon, 4 seconds slower than last time." Cheetah said, smirking at the dumbfound expressions Eagle knew was on his and his unit's face.  
"Umm.." Eagle said, making eye contact with fox who gave a helpless shrug, "well done Falcon. We're going to start on targets now."  
Used to the regime, the four soldiers stepped up to the podiums and aimed.  
"Ready, aim, fire!"  
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.  
"Alright. Let's look at your results."  
As the results were brought in, eagle noted the apprehensive looks on the units face. They were being assessed by new instructors, of course they wanted to make a good first impression. They all looked nervous. All apart from one: Falcon. Eagle narrowed his eyes at him. He didn't seem to at all care about what his results were. Arrogant maggot. Either he wanted to be binned, or he was undoubtedly confident in his shooting.  
Falcon was still a recruit so the answer should have been neither.  
Before Eagle could carry on his train of thought, the results came in.  
"Well done Cheetah" Eagle said, analysing the results. "You've got quite an accurate aim. Good hand eye coordination, am I right?"  
"Yes sir"  
"Now falc-" Eagle's eyes widened. "How many times did you shoot falcon?"  
"5 times sir"  
"That's impossible."  
"It's not sir"  
"Snake, check his gun."  
The all watched as Snake opened the chamber.  
"Empty." He announced.  
"I don't believe it." Eagle muttered.  
Because at the exact centre of the target, was one perfect hole.  
A small smirk grazed the unit leader's lips.  
"Falcon is the best shooter at the camp sir"  
"In the world more like" muttered Snake from behind Eagle. "How the hell are you so damn good?"  
"My uncle taught me, sir"  
"And why did he teach you?" Eagle asked, curious.  
"That's personal information, sir."  
Eagle opened his mouth but was cut of by Wolf.  
"Let's move on to moving targets" he said pointedly throwing a glare at Eagle.  
"Yh, yh ok. Cheetah?"  
Cheetah went first.  
"Good Cheetah. Just focus on your left shoulder when you aim at moving targets. Next Leopard."  
Leopard took slightly less time than Cheetah.  
"Good. Though take your time aiming between each shot. Hawk?"  
Hawk was the opposite of Leopard, taking his time.  
"Well done Hawk. Your aim is good, now we need to work on speed. Finally Falcon."  
Falcon stepped up, taking his time, as if already knowing the suspense he was keeping k-unit in.  
"Falcon we're waiting"  
"Yes sir"  
Falcon picked up the gun and fired.  
And fired four more shots simultaneously, seemingly without aiming.  
"Done." He said as he put the gun down and walked back to stand next to his unit.  
"Um" eagle said. "Did you even aim Falcon?"  
"I did sir"  
"Are you sure?"  
"The results are coming round, sir. You could see for yourself"  
Usually a comment that flippant might have gotten him binned, but Eagle was curious enough to let it slide.

Sure enough, each target had a hole in the dead centre.  
Fox whistled lowly, "You're pretty good for a recruit Falcon."  
"I know sir"  
Snake choked, "a little modesty won't hurt"  
"I'll keep that in mind sir."  
The rest of the training was spent the same, Falcon exceeding all expectations, while k-unit tried to keep their professionalism.  
"Okay that's time" Eagle said, gesturing to his watch. "You are dismissed."  
As soon as S-unit left, k-unit eyed each other.  
"That Falcon's something, isn't he?" Eagle said. "Where did he learn to shoot like that?"  
"He said his uncle" Snake answered but was cut off by a snort from Wolf.  
"Yh right. That wasn't any normal shooting. Not something an uncle would teach his nephew for fun. That was instinctive firing."  
Realisation dawned on the other soldiers faces.  
"You mean to say that Falcon's uncle is an assassin?" Snake asked skeptically.  
"If there even is an uncle" Wolf muttered.  
"Woah Wolf, pulling out the liar card so early in the game."  
"I'm just saying that these days criminal organisations have become much more successful in their operations. You never know what they have up their sleeves."  
"Let me get this straight" Eagle said, "we're theorising that an SAS recruit could potentially be an assassin or something, just because he's a good shot."  
"That's an understatement, and I'm not theorising, just pointing out" Wolf said.  
"But you really think an assassin would be so obvious."  
"Unless it's reverse psychology, where they want us to dismiss any suspicion."  
"Suspicion" Eagle repeated grinning. "You know what that means."  
"Don't say it" Wolf growled.  
Eagle said it.  
"No mystery is too great, no secret is too small, for we must devote our very being to uncover the truth from those who deny it"  
They all winced.  
"So Falcon is our next mission." Fox said looking at his teammates. "I feel sorry for him already."  
"Let's hope it doesn't turn out like the last one."  
The mention of their 5th teammate dampened their moods, and they lapsed into silence.  
"I still miss him" Eagle said out of the blue. "It's strange I know, we only knew him for about a week before he was taken but till this day I miss him. I miss his head that was the size of Jupiter, and his amazing food that justified his narcissism. He was part of the team y'know…"

The rest of their thoughts were cut of by a familiar head poking in the shooting range.

"Thought I might find you guys in here"  
Eagles faced split into a grin. "Tom!"  
"Yep that's me. Although I would prefer it if you called me Jaguar here."  
"Tom, jaguar, idiot, insolent child. All the same thing"  
"Hey!"  
"Anyway how are you?"  
"Wiped. This selection thing is exhausting.  
"I remember our selection" Eagle said, his face twisting into a look of disgust. "I wish I didn't. Worse months of my life."  
"That was round the time when Alex joined you guys, right?"  
"Yep"  
"How the hell did he survive?"  
"God knows."  
They lapsed into silence.  
"We better get lunch before it finishes."  
"Yh Tom" Eagle said, putting his hand around tom's shoulder. " we wouldn't want you missing out on your daily mush, what with you still growing and all."  
"Hey! I'm 23 you know"  
"Yh" Eagle said ruffing Tom's hair, "so young".  
"Get your hands of me before someone sees you'  
"What is Tommy afraid of his friends seeing him?"  
"No I'm afraid the sergeant might come in and think you're raping me."  
"That's disgusting, who would want to rape you."  
"I'll have you know, I am a very attractive human."  
"To a frog maybe."  
"That frog may turn into a prince."  
"And then he'll run away."  
"Now you're just being mean."  
Snake and Fox watched them with amusement, while Wolf just looked annoyed.  
"Shut up" he said, "Tom- Jaguar, whatever you want to call yourself, just go. Eagle, I think we need to take you to a doctor, to clarify how old you are."  
Tom sniggered.  
"I'll need to bring you as well if you carry on acting like Eagle."  
"Hey!" They both cried indignantly, then glared at each other.  
"I think Eagle is infectious" Tom muttered as he walked out.

As k-unit entered the canteen, they felt the silence descend. Snake experienced a flashback of when he was recruits, and a famous unit had come back. At that time, B-unit was the most respected, and it felt almost like a fangirl attack when he saw them. Although snake was a soldier, and soldiers were fierce manly people. They did not have fangirl attacks.  
Snake had to make a conscious effort to stop the smile from showing.  
After they got their mush, and sat on the instructor's table, obviously hiding their smug expressions, Snake felt extremely uncomfortable at the attention they were receiving.  
"Is this normal?" Snake asked a Fox.  
"I know it was always interesting when a unit returns, but never was it to this extent."  
Fox's eyes narrowed at instructor Smith, who was subtly trying to hide his emotions, though Fox , with his keen eye, saw straight through to the guilt.  
He turned his attention to smith.  
"Lion" he greeted, "long time no see. Since training, am I right?"  
"Yh Fox, how's it going?"  
"Not too bad, how about you?"  
"I'm surviving."  
"Well that's good. Say, you wouldn't happen to know why the new recruits are staring at us."  
He shifted uncomfortably, "yesterday, they found out you were the unit you trained Alex Rider."  
Fox whistled, to hide his shock and anger. "How'd they find out?"  
Smith pointed to one of the recruits. "That one over there, called Leopard, seems to know everything about everyone. Dangerous in this line of work." He added as an afterthought.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

The next week of k-units assessment passed by in a blur as they filled the information on the 16 recruits under their instruction. It was clear by far that the best in the whole camp was Falcon, with shooting skills beyond SAS level, and combat efficiency rivalling even k-units. The only person who could come close was Tom who of course, had been training with one of the most elite teams in the SAS camp for the past year and a half. But that was it. Falcon was the best in the whole training ground.  
After speaking with the Sergeant, k-unit decided to make today all day shooting, because that seemed the weakest point for most of the soldiers.  
Falcon, who was perfect at shooting, was excused for the day.  
Now I know what they say, it is impossible to be perfect at anything there's always room for improvement, ya-di-ya-di-dah... , but Falcon was perfect at shooting, no denying, there was no room for improvement.  
So that's why he was giving the day off.

When lunch finally came around, k-unit were wiped, having taught the 15 soldiers for 11 hours, how to perfect their aim, shooting, and stance, they wanted nothing more than to eat and sleep.  
Even if the eating meant mush from the canteen.

K-unit were walking back to the mess hall when they heard the commotion coming from their destination.  
They walked faster to see what the fuss was about but stopped dead at the sight that hit them. And the smell.  
They saw food.  
Not the inedible piece of mush, but proper food. And the smell was of chilli.  
K-unit stared, their mouths open, before Eagle bounded into the hall and joined the line.  
The rest followed him, though slightly more sophisticatedly.  
All around them, SAS men were talking and laughing, and actually seemed to be having a good time. Just shows you what food could do.  
When k-unit finally got their dinner, by which time Eagle had practically been drooling, they sat on the only empty table left.  
"Mmmphh, this godly" Eagle said between bites.  
"Mmm" Snake agreed, too busy enjoying this godsend.  
When Eagle had finished his food in record time, he looked at Snakes plate.  
"Snaaake" Eagle said.  
"No-"  
"But you don't even know what I was going to say."  
"No"  
"But-"  
"I'm not giving you mine" Snake snapped.  
"Hmph" Eagle huffed, and crossed his arms.  
Suddenly his eyes changed light, and he smiled slightly.  
"Hey guys"  
"What?"  
"Do you remember when we first saw cub at Wolf's house?"  
Wolf put down his spoon on his now finished bowl.  
"Yh?"  
"And he made us chilli as well, right?" Snake said.  
Eagle nodded.  
"When I first smelt it," Snake said, "I couldn't believe that Wolf had actually cooked something edible. If I wasn't shocked enough by Cub, I would have been by the smell."  
Wolf didn't even bother to try defend his cooking abilities. He didn't have any to defend.  
"That was some amazing chilli" Eagle said wistfully. "And the spices were so perfect."  
"Tastes a lot like this one" Snake said.  
"You think one of the cooks is cub?" Eagle said mockingly. "Ask the sergeant for their files and we could investigate, you never know."  
Snake punched eagle's arm, "no need to get all sarcastic on me, I was just stating an observation."  
Eagle's response was interrupted by an applause rising from the soldiers around them.  
Looking around, they saw Falcon coming out of the kitchen.  
"Is that Falcon?" Eagle asked.  
"Yes"  
"Did he cook this?"  
"I think so."  
K-unit joined the clapping, and Eagle even whistled.  
"Falcon you're a superhero" he shouted over the noise, and was joined by other shouts of appreciation.  
Falcon looked stunned for a moment, before he grinned maniacally, and bowed his head.  
"Thank you, thank you" he shouted, as the noise quieted down.  
"I would like to dedicate this award" Falcon said. "to my family and friends and everyone who believed in me-hey!" He shouted as cheetah dragged him away from the centre of attention.  
" jeez, Chee, what's wrong with me accepting my applause."  
"Nothing" Cheetah said, still dragging falcon away, "you just don't have to be so pigheaded about it."  
"Who you calling pigheaded?"  
"The SAS soldier whose being dragged away by his unit leader."  
"That's not fair-" and the rest of Falcon's sentence was cut off by the sound of the doors closing behind them.

The SAS soldiers laughed and then diffused into their own separate groups.  
"I think Falcon is almost as narcissistic as Cub" Snake said.  
"Wow" Eagle laughed, "two Cub references in less than 10 minutes, I think the food really got to your brain."  
Snake glared at Eagle but offered no response.

Outside, Falcon was protesting against his treatment.  
"You can't just drag me out there like I'm a child. I have a reputation you know."  
"Yes Falcon, I know" Cheetah sighed, "nothing can ruin your almost perfect reputation at the camp."  
"Almost?" Falcon asked.  
"Yes almost. Because after being dragged out of the canteen by your unit leader in front of most of the SAS soldiers, I don't think your reputation is perfect anymore"  
"Hey" Falcon argued, face contorting in confusion. "that doesn't make any sense, you're contradicting yourself"  
Cheetah was denied the right to respond by a very disliked voice.  
"Look what we have here" sneered a voice.  
Cheetah turned around, a look of disgust marring his features.  
"What do you want?" Cheetah demanded.  
"Nothing" Lion smirked, "just wanted to see how you dealt with your teammate"  
"So you can learn how to deal with yours? I'm sorry but I don't give pointers to people like you, you've got no chance."

It was common knowledge in the camp that the leader of L-unit:Lion and the leader of S-unit: Cheetah, hated each other. Their hatred apparently started from high school, and hadn't ended.  
The other unit members, who had little to do with the feud, were forced to suffer their exchanges.  
"Look who's talking." Lion responded  
"How old are you again?"  
"Obviously older than Falcon, with the way you're dealing with him"  
Cheetah eyes flared up in anger, but it was Falcon who pushed to stand in front of Lion.  
"I'm sorry but do I know you?" he asked calmly.  
The degrading tone in which falcon spoke in was enough to unleash Lion's anger.  
"Why you little-"  
"Lion stop" Tom said, stepping in front of bear to shield Falcon, even though he knew that Falcon didn't need shielding.  
"I don't want to get kitchen duty for a week just because you can't control yourself."  
Lion just glared at Tom, before stomping away. Tom glanced at his two remaining teammates who had various expressions of exasperation, then turned back to face Falcon.  
"I'm sorry about lion, he can be a-"  
Tom gasped as he stumbled back in shock, his eyes widening comically.  
"Jaguar are you ok?" Horse asked.  
It took him a moment to get himself back under control, when he finally did, he replied, "Yes fine" and then walked away.

It had all happened so fast, the others were left standing in shock.  
"Uh, what just happened?" Leopard asked intelligently.  
Tom's remaining team mates looked at each other before Bear decided to run after Jaguar.


	4. Chapter 4

hey guysss...

I had completely forgotten about the ending of the last chapter so I wasn't in a rush to post the next one. hopefully this doesn't happen again.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reviewed and favouritised and liked the fanfic. I'm in AS, and life kinda goes downhill here, so these little things really do make a difference.

thank you all

 _Tom gasped as he stumbled back in shock, his eyes widening comically._  
 _"Jaguar are you ok?" Horse asked._  
 _It took him a moment to get himself back under control, when he finally did, he replied, "Yes fine" and then walked away._

 _It had all happened so fast, the others were left standing in shock._  
 _"Uh, what just happened?" Leopard asked intelligently._  
 _Tom's remaining team mates looked at each other before Bear decided to run after Jaguar._  
 _-_

Hey Jag, wait up"  
Tom did not stop walking.  
"Stop" Bear said, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving.  
"What do you want Bear?"  
"Are you ok?"  
"I already said I'm fine."  
"Are you sure?"  
"How many more times, I'm fine."  
"What happened there?"  
"Nothing happened"  
"Oh really" Bear drawled, "the what was" he then proceeded to mimic Tom's earlier spectacle.  
"I wasn't that dramatic"  
"Jag, my friend, you've been dramatic since the day we met."  
"No I haven't."  
"Yes, you have"  
"No, I-"  
"Do you remember how you first introduced yourself." Bear asked. "Oh fair unit," he said in a high voice, " how honoured you must feel to be in the presence of Jaguar the Greatest."  
"I wasn't that bad."  
"Believe me Jag, you were. Lion was tempted to drag you from your collar to the sergeant, and get you binned."  
Tom huffed childishly, unable to defend himself.

"Anyway," Bear said grinning, "what happened with Falcon."

Tom sighed. This was just like Bear. Able to take you on a roundabout journey just to get past your defences, where he could strike back like a snake.  
He would make a great spy, Tom thought sadly.  
"It's complicated." Tom finally answered.  
"What do you mean by complicated?"  
"You wouldn't understand."  
"Enough with the dramatics." Bear exclaimed. "Just tell me already."

"It's nothing really. Tom said, "Falcon just looked like someone I used to know."  
"Do you have to be so dramatic." he asked.  
"Do you have to be so persistent" Tom shot back.  
"Actually, yes I do."  
"Go away."  
"Not until you tell me what's bothering you."  
"I already did."  
"So you're telling me, that you just realised Falcon looked like someone you used to know, even though you've been in the same camp for weeks now. Does it even need such a dramatic reaction?"

"When you put it that way, it sounds stupid."  
"Maybe because it is stupid." Bear answered. "Just say the truth."  
"Ok" Tom resigned.  
"Thank you"  
"My best friend was kidnapped 7 years ago, and nobody has seen him since."  
"He's dead?"  
"No he's not."  
"How do you know?"  
"I just do."  
Bear picked up on Jaguar's reluctance to answer the question.  
"So you're saying that Falcon looks like him, and you only just realised?"  
"It's not that Falcon looks like him, it's just that the way Falcon looked at me was almost identical to the way my best friend would look at me. I just got a flashback at the wrong moment."

Bear searched Tom with a piercing look.  
"That's all?"  
Tom nodded.  
"Alright then." Bear said and walked away.  
Tom stared after him, wondering if he had revealed more than he intended.

That night Tom laid awake on his bed, staring at the ceiling, as he did every so often when his mind reverted to thinking about a certain somebody.  
The first time Tom and Alex actually talked to each other was behind the school, when Alex had saved him from the bullies that had been on to him for 2 months, taking his money, hurting him. The bullies were two years older than Tom, so naturally Tom did not even try to stop them. And then one day Alex had come. He had pushed away the thugs who were ganging up on him, and stood between Tom and the bullies. He stared each of them down, daring them to try something. One of them did, and Alex had brought him down with a swift kick.  
They didn't bother Tom again.  
That had been back in year 5. 4 years later, they had become best friends. Closer than friends, practically brothers.  
When Tom's parents had gone into one of their moods, Tom was always welcome to stay with Alex and Jack, unknowingly, they had become his second family.  
And then MI6 came along.  
The first four times Alex disappeared, Tom had no idea why. His best friend would come back bloody and beaten up, before disappearing again. Tom hadn't been oblivious to the rumours, with thugs even coming up to interrogate him. But Tom had stood his ground, ridiculing every lie that they brought up. Alex was the guy who saved Tom and several others from bullying. How could he be involved in a gang?  
Alex was the person who stopped the drug selling in school. How could he be a druggy?  
And then Tom had found out the truth. The truth about Alex rider. The teenager blackmailed by the government. At first Tom hadn't seen it that way. He had seen Alex as the super cool super spy.  
How wrong he was.  
Though as time passed, and when Jack died, Tom began to realise the truth, but the reality of his best friend's situation did not hit him until the first time It happened. When Alex Broke.  
The fear that coursed through Tom that night made him realise what life could do to you. His best friend had been taken to the end of the world and back, then left stranded in the middle.  
And then it happened the second time. In wolf's flat.  
Seven years ago. Seven bloody years ago. Seven years since his best friend had been ripped from his grasp.  
And it still stung to think about. The ache familiar and constant. But Tom knew that Alex wasn't dead. He knew it deep down. Alex was too stubborn to get rid of that easily. Tom knew that if Alex Rider would one day die, the whole world would shake from the explosion that he would make. Alex Rider would only go down by taking the whole world with him, he wouldn't go down any other way.  
So where was Alex? Was he still with scorpia? Or was he somewhere else?

And then there was Falcon. Falcon looked nothing like Alex. Falcon having black hair, green eyes and round facial features, whereas Alex had blond hair, brown eyes and sharp features. That wasn't it.  
The moment Tom had made eye contact with falcon, a shadow had passed across Falcon's eyes. The same shadow that passed across Alex's eyes when he went into one of his blank moments and then forgot.  
Tom didn't lie to Bear. He had had a flashback, of the day in wolf's flat. The last time he saw Alex. When he had knocked Alex unconscious, and dragged him to the sofa.

The thoughts began suffocating Tom, until he could hardly breath, so he silently left the hut for some fresh air.

Once he was outside, and cleared his head, Tom slipped out his phone and checked the time: 23:38. He hoped the Sabina was awake, and called her.  
After two rings, she picked up.  
"Hey Tom."  
"Hi Sabina. How are you?"  
"Good. You?"  
"Exhausted from the training."  
"Come on, it can't be that bad. After all you trained with Wolf. How much worse can it be?"  
"Sabina, Wolf is nothing compared to the sergeant."  
"If you're complaining, then what are the other recruits going through?"  
"I think they are slowly dying, everyday."  
"Wow, existential crisis over here. But seriously, you're definitely the best, after that intense training with k-unit."  
"Actually, I'm second best."  
"Who's the idiot that's beating you?"  
"A guy named Falcon. Scarily good at everything."  
"How is that possible?"  
"Said his uncle was SAS and Falcon wanted to follow in his footsteps, so his uncle trained him from a very young age"  
At that moment, a thought passed through Tom's head, a thought so preposterous, that he instantly shut it out.  
"How good is he?"  
"Perfect at everything. Shooting, running, swimming, combat, medicine, and he had a mind like no other when it comes to mission exercises."  
"Well good luck trying to beat that."  
"Thanks(!)" he replied sarcastically.  
"You're welcome.  
On another note, Wolf told me that k-unit were going back to SAS to train as instructors. Have they arrived?"  
"Yh, about a week ago."  
Suddenly Sabina burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I just can't imagine Eagle as an instructor. Yh I know he taught you, and me some aswell, but I can't imagine him teaching a bunch of strangers and calling them maggots." She laughed again. "Anyway, why did you call?"  
The smile that was one Tom's face was wiped off. " I-i wanted to ask if there was any news on Alex."  
The mood suddenly became sombre.  
"You know you would be the first person I'd call if there was any." She said softly.  
Tom pretended to hide his disappointment. "Yeah. But do you have any inclination of where he could be?"  
"Well it's been strangely quiet the past 4 years in terms of strange occurrences, but I have reason to believe he may be somewhere in the U.K.  
"The uk!" Tom exploded quietly. "Why didn't you say anything?"  
"Well I had no evidence-"  
"Since when did we work on evidence?"  
"And I don't even have a rough location. I hardly believe you are going to search the entirety of the uk."  
Tom huffed immaturely. "Fine."  
"Got to sleep Tom. You have training tomorrow."  
"Don't remind me."  
"Good night."  
"Night."  
Tom sighed and shut the phone. He should really go to sleep. But the shadow that jumped across Falcon's eyes reminded him of his worst nightmare, every time he shut his eyes, the image of Alex hit him with bitter reality.  
His dreams that night were filled with shadows of the past.


	5. Chapter 5

"Jaguar wake up"  
"Hmph" he groaned intelligently into his pillow.  
"Come on Jag, we're going to be late."  
"Leave me alone" he mumbled, "I was up all night playing football with Alex-"  
His eyes widened, and he jumped out of bed, the sleep spell broken immediately.  
"Woah Jag" Horse said raising his hands, "calm down."  
"Sorry" he muttered, "bad night."  
"Yh I heard" Horse replied sarcastically, "up all night playing football with Alex. Now is that really healthy when you have intense training to do today." he continued wiggling his finger.  
"Shut up" Jag muttered, but his heart wasn't into it. He was still feeling wrong footed about his unconscious statement. He knew he had been thinking about Alex before going to sleep, but to say something so... he hadn't said anything remotely similar for 7 years, and then to come out with such a bold statement.  
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he caught Bear analysing him, but quickly turn away. That man was too observant for his own good.

As they were leaving the hut, Bear stopped in front of Lion.  
"Get out of my way" he growled.  
"Not until I've said what I've got to say. Listen" he began, "yesterday, if Jaguar hadn't stopped you, you would have ended up in a fight with Falcon and Cheetah and ended up getting us all binned. I don't know what's happened between you and Cheetah, and frankly, I don't care, but if you end up getting us binned, then you will find yourself a one way ticket into hell."  
"Are you threatening me?"  
"Yes" Bear answered flatly, "I am. Because honestly, I'm sick of your childhood actions. The whole camp is sick of your childhood actions. I think even the sergeant is looking for an excuse to bin you. Either get your act together or prepare for the inevitable."  
They stood there, glaring at each other for a full minute before Lion stomped away.

Tom grinned and strung his hand around Bear's shoulders and whistled.  
"Now that's how a bear stands up to a lion"  
"Shut up" Bear muttered, but he couldn't help the small twitch of his lips.

Two days later found Eagle bursting into k-unit's hut.  
"Guys guess what?" He shouted, unnecessarily loud.  
"What?" Fox shouted back with the same unnecessary volume.  
Eagle glared at him. "Four recruits just got binned."  
Wolf and Snake snapped their heads round in shock. "Seriously? Four? At the same time? Are any of them from who we are training?"  
"Actually" Eagle said, "there all from those who we are training."  
"Who?"  
"Lion, Cheetah, Hawk and Horse"  
Realisation dawned on the others' faces.  
"A fight broke out between Cheetah and Lion?" Fox asked.  
Eagle nodded.  
"Hawk and horse got caught in the middle?" Fox asked again.  
Eagle nodded.  
"The sergeant caught them?"  
Eagle nodded.  
"Well it's about time." Wolf exclaimed in exasperation. "How long did they expect to last in the SAS if they couldn't even let go of a childhood grudge?"  
"So the recruits that are left are going to merge?" Snake asked.  
"Yeah, there going to all go to S-unit."  
"Do you think it's safe to have Tom and Leopard in the same unit?" Snake asked.  
"Let's hope nothing explodes" Wolf said glaring at Eagle.  
"That was 10 years ago!" Eagle cried indignantly.

Bear knocked on s-units door.  
"Jag, please don't do anything stupid" he said over his shoulder.  
"I never do anything stupid." He replied automatically.  
The door opened but nobody came out and it was dark on the inside.  
"Hello?" Bear called out. "Leopard, Falcon, can we come in?"  
There was no answer.  
Bear looked at Jaguar.  
"Well it's our hut as well" Jaguar said, "we might as well make ourselves at home."  
As soon as they entered, the door shut behind them.  
"Jag, I said nothing stupid" Bear said blindly searching for the light.  
"I swear this isn't me."  
"If I find out it's you, I swear I will- where's the goddamn light"  
"Here it is-"  
"SURPRISE"  
Bear and Jaguar turned around so fast, they got whiplash, and their eyes widened as they took in the scene in front of them. Leopard wearing a party hat, a party horn in his mouth, and behind him, the wall held a banner that said, 'welcome to our humble hut".  
Jaguar was the first to get over his shock. "Wow, I would have never have thought of something so big." He turned to Bear. "Is this what you meant by stupid?"  
Bear glared at Jaguar, then turned to leopard. "Ummm, Leopard, thanks for making us feel welcome?"  
Leopard grinned. "My pleasure. We are now one unit, we need to forget about our past differences. What better way to that than by a surprise?"  
"Where's Falcon?" Bear asked.  
"I'm right behind you"  
"What the (censored)?" Bear exclaimed. "Falcon it's not socially acceptable to sneak up behind people."  
"I didn't, I was here the whole time"  
"Impossible."  
"Falcon's always doing it" Leopard interjected. "You might get used to it after a while, but I haven't yet. He's like a ninja."

Jaguar froze, the movement so miniature, that only Falcon realised, but he didn't comment.

"So" Leopard said, "we have the two best soldiers in our unit. I'm expecting great things from you two" he said waggling his finger at the two of them.  
"I always do great" they replied simultaneously, and then awkwardly averted their gazes.

Sensing the obvious tension between the two but not knowing the reason, Bear spoke, "who would have thought that their was such competition between the two of you?"  
They didn't correct him, because his deduction was better to think about than the truth.  
"Well" leopard said, "You better sort out your difference because we are now one unit, we work together. Bear has been appointed unit leader, so we listen to him. I'm the medic, Jag-I can call you Jag right?-is the communications expert, and Falcon is the sharp shooter."  
"We need to get accustomed to working together as a unit" Bear said, already falling into his role, "that means no serious competition between the two of you. You are both top, so the only thing that can get you binned is if you have a fight or break any rules, so keep yourself in check."  
Jaguar and Falcon nodded.  
And hopefully, that would be that.  
Sadly, hope is nothing but an illusion.


	6. Chapter 6

_Sensing the obvious tension between the two but not knowing the reason, Bear spoke, "who would have thought that their was such competition between the two of you?"  
They didn't correct him, because his deduction was better to think about than the truth.  
"Well" leopard said, "You better sort out your difference because we are now one unit, we work together. Bear has been appointed unit leader, so we listen to him. I'm the medic, Jag-I can call you Jag right?-is the communications expert, and Falcon is the sharp shooter."  
"We need to get accustomed to working together as a unit" Bear said, already falling into his role, "that means no serious competition between the two of you. You are both top, so the only thing that can get you binned is if you have a fight or break any rules, so keep yourself in check."  
Jaguar and Falcon nodded.  
And hopefully, that would be that.  
Sadly, hope is nothing but an illusion._

—

That night, even after much tossing and turning, Tom couldn't go to sleep.  
Blaming it on the heat, he got up to open the window, and stood there for a moment as the cool breeze kissed his cheeks, hoping to clear his head so he could get some sleep.  
He hated nights like this. Nights when he couldn't stop thinking. When even though his body was protesting, his mind just kept whirling, traveling at 500 metres per second.  
'Look at the stars Tom. Focus your attention on the stars.'  
He remembered those words, said by a twelve year old boy to another twelve year old boy.  
'It's funny. When you look at how many stars there are and you feel so small compared to the greatness of the galaxy.'  
Just by looking at them, You feel your problems disappearing, shying away from the magnificence of the world above.'  
Tom looked up at the clear night sky, the stars stretching far beyond the horizon. Even now, a decade later, they still comforted him.  
He slowly named the constellations he could remember: Taurus and Leo and hydra and andromeda and... and...  
He stayed there for a while, counting them all, until his thoughts receded to the back of his head.  
On his way back to bed, his gaze strayed to his new team mate; Falcon.  
'like a ninja'  
How many times had he heard those words said? How many times had he, himself said those words?  
Falcon slept strangely too. His hands were stuck to his sides, and he was laying completely still, almost as if he was afraid to disturb the night. If it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest, Tom would have mistaken him for the dead.  
Who else did he know that slept like that?

Shaking his head to clear the treacherous thoughts, Tom sank onto his bed and closed his eyes.

From the opposite end of the room, Bear watched his teammate carefully. Too carefully in fact, that he missed the opening of Falcon's eyes

Falcon, as always, was the first to wake up. Thinking about the best way to wake his new unit to clear away the tension, he decided to go with the traditional cold water.  
Getting three cup fills of water, he splashed them onto his unit's faces.  
(Next part has been censored out)

"Euhhhggghhh" Leopard groaned after his heart rate had cooled down. "What the hell Falcon?"  
"Good morning to you too" he replied and grinned sheepishly under the three sets of glares.  
"Did you have to throw cold water at us?" Jaguar asked.  
"Actually no." Falcon stated, "but it was much more fun seeing you're faces in the morning."  
"How did you even wake up?" Bear asked, "There was no alarm."  
"That Falcon for you" Leopard answered instead, "since I first met him he's been like this, internal alarming clock or something. Thanks to him I've never been late."  
"Actually" Falcon said, gesturing to the time, "We might be late if you keep talking."  
"Crap"

"So what do we have today ?" Jaguar asked, once they had all settled down. There had been a bit of an awkward moment due to hesitation when Jaguar and Falcon ended up sitting next to each other, but Bear let it slide. He couldn't expect perfection from day 1.  
"For the next three days, we'll be doing mainly team based activities and we'll have to enter the killing house on Friday, it's like an assessment-"  
Jaguar groaned.  
"What?" Bear said, shooting him a look.  
"I hate the term assessment, can you use something more positive, like, I dunno, evaluation."  
Bear glared at him. "Fine. They'll be evaluating us-"  
"You make it sound so harsh, maybe if you said it nicely-"  
"Jaguar, I swear if you don't shut up, you're going to find your body at the bottom of the river. Understood?"  
"Understood."  
"Where was I?"  
"At evaluating and assessing, though I prefer testing" Falcon supplied grinning.  
"Are you mocking me?" Bear demanded  
"No sir" he replied, hiding a smirk.  
"Right, they'll be assessing how quickly we can adapt to a new team, and how effective we are at working together. That means" he said, throwing a glare at Jaguar, " We need to pull ourselves tightly this week; establish our weak points quickly and improve as fast as humanly possible."  
"Yes sir" they said in unison, though none could completely hold back the smirk.  
"Stop smirking you blithering idiots, I'm serous." Bear said, though he too couldn't help the small grin.  
"You're falling nicely into the role of leader." Jaguar said, flinging his arm around Bear's shoulder, as they got up.  
"Shut up" he muttered, and they made their way towards combat training.

"I'm going to be mixing things up a bit today" the instructors was saying, "to see how you adapt to unknown opponents. First I want Leopard up against Jaguar and Falcon against Bear. Go."

They faced each other.  
"No hard feelings if I beat you" Leopard threw at Jaguar, who returned with a scoff.  
"I could beat you with my eyes closed."  
"Well enough with the chit chat. Let's see if your bite is as big as your bark."  
"Bring it on."  
They shared on maniacal grin before launching at each other.  
10 minutes later, they both collapsed into the ground, breathing heavily from over exertion.  
"Truce" Leopard asked.  
"Never"  
And they went at it again.

They were locked in combat for the remainder of the lesson, and had drawn quite a bit of attention. What with them attacking relentlessly for almost half an hour.  
They were practically on their knees, their attacks sluggish with exhaustion, their movements slow and uncoordinated, but they remained determined to see the other go down.

It wasn't until the instructor signalled the end of the lesson, that the two dropped dead with exhaustion.  
"Draw?" The sound emitted from Jaguar was barely audible.  
Leopard nodding, speaking way beyond him.  
Taking pity on them, Bear reached out to help Leopard up. "Falcon, help Jaguar, I don't think they'll be able to walk on their own."  
Jaguar couldn't help tensing slightly as Falcon approached. He attempted to get up to show that he didn't need help, but all his muscles protested against the movement.  
'stop being stupid' a silent voice in his head whispered.  
He decided to call that voice common sense and listen to it.

Leaning heavily on their teammates, Jaguar and Leopard looked at each other, too tired to even show facial expressions.  
"Next time" Leopard croaked.  
"You're on" he gasped.  
"Oh no you don't" Bear interrupted. "You two are going to kill yourselves."  
"I'm going to beat him next time" whispered leopard.  
"Yeah right" Jaguar gasped.  
Bear and Falcon let out an exasperated sigh.  
"Even when dead on your feet, you're still arguing."  
They seemed too tired to answer that.  
Falcon whistled, "Bear got you whipped." He commented grinning.  
If they had they energy, they would have turned to glare at him.


	7. Chapter 7

_Leaning heavily on their teammates, Jaguar and Leopard looked at each other, too tired to even show facial expressions.  
"Next time" Leopard croaked.  
"You're on" he gasped.  
"Oh no you don't" Bear interrupted. "You two are going to kill yourselves."  
"I'm going to beat him next time" whispered leopard.  
"Yeah right" Jaguar gasped.  
Bear and Falcon let out an exasperated sigh.  
"Even when dead on your feet, you're still arguing."  
They seemed too tired to answer that.  
Falcon whistled, "Bear got you whipped." He commented grinning.  
If they had they energy, they would have turned to glare at him._

"Do you think we could ask Tom to keep an eye on Falcon?" Eagle asked, two days later.

Snake through his arms up in exasperation, "not this again."

"I'm serious" Eagle said, ignoring the exaggerated gasp from Fox, "this could be our best chance to find out if there is something going on. If there's nothing going on then that's ok, but if there is something going on then it's better to be safe than sorry."  
"What about Tom?" Snake countered "If Falcon realised that Tom's been keeping an eye on him, he might confront him, and this almost certainly would get them binned."  
"We all know they're both too composed for that" Eagle fired back.  
"So what?" Snake stood his ground, "this could cause a wedge between the unit, and this is supposed to be the stage when they build their bonds. Don't you think you're going to sabotage their chances with your favour."  
"it's not like we are asking him to play spy" Eagle reasoned, "just to keep his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary."  
"That is essentially what spying is" snake countered relentlessly.  
"you're being melodramatic" Eagle stated  
"Me?!" Snake spluttered, "you're the one who's giving Tom a one way ticket to getting binned."  
"It won't escalate that far"  
"You're asking him to spy on his teammate" Snake cried out in frustration.  
They glared at each other.  
Finally they turned to Wolf and Fox, who had been watching them like a tennis match.  
"It's too risky" Wolf said, "Falcon is unnervingly observant, and it's impossible to determine his reaction if he finds out."  
Eagle deflated slightly, "Fox?" He asked meekly.  
"I don't know Eagle. I don't think it's fair to put Tom in that situation when he already has so much to worry about with selection and all."

"well it seems like you've all made up your minds" Eagle said, seemingly defeated, though he was far from it.

"Good" Wolf said, "now let's focus on the lecture we're going to deliver."

Fortunately for Leopard and Jaguar, next up on the agenda was a lecture on terrorist organisation for the whole camp, and k-unit were leading it.  
"You two are too lucky" Bear growled. "I'm thinking about making you run the assault course as a punishment for exerting all you energy."  
"Come on Bear" Jaguar replied, "you know you love us too much to do that."  
As soon as he was able to support himself, he had let go of Falcon like he was some infectious disease though the latter didn't seem to notice anything strange.  
"Shut up." Bear muttered.

They were quite early, despite having to drag two of them, so they stood waiting outside.  
When k-unit approached, they stood at attention until they were told 'at ease'.  
As they passed, Eagle subtly brushed past Tom and dropped a piece of paper into his pocket, earning a flat look from Tom, but he quickly schooled his face into neutrality.  
They entered after k-unit and sat at the front, waiting for the whole to fill up.  
Once there was a reasonable amount of people resulting in a lot of noise, Tom slipped the paper out of his pocket and it read:  
'k-unit hut, 18:00'  
He rolled his eyes at the clichiness but decided to follow up the drama by ripping up the paper and eating it.

Wolf stepped up and silence descended.  
"Afternoon soldiers. Today's lecture: terrorist and criminal organisation."

"The biggest threat to the UK at the moment" Fox was saying 20 minutes later, "is the IRA terrorist organisation, and has been so for the last 20 years. There is almost a 100% guarantee that at some point during your career as a soldier, you will face them.  
Another terrorist organisation that is rising at a threatening pace is Al-Qaeda. Though they are mainly centred in the Middle East, they are threatening the UK, and soldiers are often sent to middle Eastern countries.  
These are the main terrorist organisations."  
"However," Snake carried on stepping up, "what is more dangerous than terrorist organisation, are criminal organisations. What makes them different is that terrorist organisation have a clear motive, to conquer or invade; but criminal organisation, everything is done for money. As long as you can pay, you can have anything done to anybody. They can be focused on single person or whole continents, and they have no ultra motive. Anything for the money.  
One of most dangerous Criminal organisation at the moment, is SCORPIA, standing for sabotage, corruption, intelligence and assassination. 10 years ago, SCORPIA was the most powerful criminal organisation in the world. However, after suffering some key consecutive defeats which were later made public, SCORPIA lost their status, their power, their customers and their money. It was generally thought to be the end of SCORPIA.  
"However" and here he almost visibly gulped, "5 years ago, they began to rise again. It was believed they had gained a weapon more powerful than anything ever created, and with it, they rose back up at a scarily fast rate. And are still increasing. At the moment, this weapon of so called mass destruction currently resides with them, but intelligent agencies all over the world are putting in as much effort as humanly possible to identify this weapon," he paused, "and neutralise it."  
Snake stepped down and Eagle stepped up to conclude.  
"SCORPIA's weapons is not just a fact, it's a warning. Imagine a weapon with unlimited power, unlimited energy, unlimited ability…" he paused for effect.

"And then imagine a criminal organisation having complete control over it."


	8. Chapter 8

"However" and here he almost visibly gulped, "5 years ago, they began to rise again. It was believed they had gained a weapon more powerful than anything ever created, and with it, they rose back up at a scarily fast rate. And are still increasing. At the moment, this weapon of so called mass destruction currently resides with them, but intelligent agencies all over the world are putting in as much effort as humanly possible to identify this weapon," he paused, "and neutralise it."  
Snake stepped down and Eagle stepped up to conclude.  
"SCORPIA's weapons is not just a fact, it's a warning. Imagine a weapon with unlimited power, unlimited energy, unlimited ability…" he paused for effect.

"And then imagine a criminal organisation having complete control over it."

-

At 6, when the sun had just began to set, Tom made his way to k-unit's cabin, his mind straying to the lecture they had delivered. He wasn't afraid to admit, that it scared him the way they covertly mentioned Alex. Him being a weapon of mass destruction. The rational part of him understood that they have their duty as instructors to warn and prepare the soldiers for what they would be up against; but that id nothing to calm the raging anger in his blood at how much they dehumanised Alex. they didn't need to describe alex in such a sinister way. He was a human being, just like him, just like them, so they needn't say what they had.  
But he knew that if Scorpia had managed to utilise Alex in the ways he only dreamed about in the dead of the night, then he knew that they should be warned. But he also knew that no amount of warning would ever prepare them if they ever came across Alex.

"Hey Tom"  
Tom was drawn out of his depressing thoughts by none other than Eagle who was leaning against his cabin.  
"Shhhh" Tom said unable to help looking over his shoulder, "what if someone hears you?"  
Eagle rolled his eyes, "don't worry, your secret's safe with me."  
"Shut up"  
"So how's your new unit?" Eagle asked casually.  
"Alright"  
"Better than the last one."  
"Meh. It's only the first day so..."  
"How're Leopard and Falcon?"  
"Well" Tom said, smiling slightly, "Leopard is like you, only with brains-"  
"Hey!"  
Tom winked, "kidding. He doesn't have brains either."  
"Hey! Watch your mouth squirt."  
"Will do sir, will do."  
"What about Falcon?"  
"And Falcon is normal, slightly strange."  
Eagle jumped at the chance, "strange? How so?"  
"I don't know, he's just strange" Tom explained.  
"That's not really an explanation."  
"I don't care. And it's not like you to go all spy mojo to tell me to come here just to ask about my unit, so what's up"  
"Eagle wants you to spy on Falcon" Fox said stepping out of nowhere, causing both of them to jump.  
"What the hell Fox ?! What are you doing eavesdropping on our private conversation" Eagle hissed.  
Fox glared at Eagle, "I thought we agreed not to speak about this"  
"You guys agreed, I just pretended too. I'm serious about this, ok!"  
"Eagle you can't just go around acting behind the scenes. We're not 12 anymore"  
"I'm sorry to interrupt" Tom said , sounding not sorry at all, "but what do you want me to do."  
"Eagle wants you to spy on Falcon" Fox repeated.  
"Did you have to say it so tactless?" Eagle hissed.  
"Was there a different way you wanted me to say it?"  
"Actually yes. You could have-"  
"You want me to spy on Falcon" Tom interrupted in disbelief.  
"Well it's not exactly spying" Eagle explained, "We just want you to keep an eye on him?"  
"Why?"  
Silence.  
"Why?" He said more insistently.  
Silence.  
"Why!?"  
"Because I don't trust him" Eagle finally answered.  
"Oh" he said intelligently.  
"Aren't you going to ask why?" Eagle asked.  
"No."  
"Why not?"  
"Cause I don't trust him either."  
"Why don't you trust him?" Eagle asked.  
"Why don't you?" Tom retorted, raising an eyebrow.  
They held each other's gaze, daring the other to break first.  
After a long minute the both resigned.  
"Answer for answer" Eagle suggested.  
"Deal"  
"We have some suspicions that he may be a spy for a criminal organisation."  
Tom waited a full moment before bursting out in laughter.  
Honestly, it was almost a relief for him. He had been thinking of other stuff-  
"So What about You?" Fox asked.  
"He's different" Tom lied. "Too observant, too stealthy"  
"So you don't trust him because he's better than you?" Eagle asked innocently.  
"Shut up"  
And then they fell into their usual banter, tensions from earlier forgotten.

-  
"Today will be your first time going into the killing house as a unit." Wolf was saying two days later. "The four of us will be monitoring your progress at all time. I'm warning you, the sergeant always pays more attention to newly formed units, so don't mess up."  
"The aim" Fox said, "is simple. There is a bomb in the killing house. Find it and neutralise it, without triggering any of the traps and before the time limit runs out. Good luck."  
The four instructors dispersed leaving the four recruits to plan.

"So," Eagle said, once they had settled into the surveillance room. "What do you bet is going to happen?"  
Ben surveyed s-unit as they planned, eyes narrowing critically. " they will enter together, Bear in the lead; he's got the strongest eyesight and a keen eye for traps. Leopard will be behind and ahead of Falcon, the sharp shooter. Jaguar, the communications expert, will bring up the rear. They enter and at the first T-section, will split into twos. Jaguar and Falcon, shooter and communications, and on the other side leader who is also a fair shot and medic. Jaguar and Falcon will be moving slightly faster but it will be the other two who find the bomb. They will take approximately 8.5 seconds to realise that the bomb has an algorithm that only Jaguar can decipher, so they will radio, only to find the signal blocked by the electromagnetic waves being emitted from the bomb. Bear will them remember the buzzer and gps that Jaguar and himself had implanted in their uniforms when they where in L-unit, (that Tom had scarily managed to make and keep hidden from the sergeant) and will press it to alert Jaguar. Falcon and jaguar will them make their way back, and diffuse the bomb."

They all stared at Fox mouths hanging open. "What is this sorcery?" Eagle whispered aghast.  
Fox just tapped the side of his nose.

-  
"trip wire , 3 steps left" falcon said, 10 minutes in. They had split up about 5 minutes ago, and so far no luck.  
"Thanks" replied Jaguar, moving to avoid it, sparing a moment to wink at the hidden camera.  
"Is there a reason you do that?" Falcon asked as they moved on.  
"Do what?"  
"Wink at every camera we pass."  
Jaguar looked sideways at Falcon, surprised that he had noticed.  
"Why are you asking?"  
"Just wondering, isn't it reckless to act that way In front of people who can bin you?"  
"I don't think k-unit will bin me"  
"Why not?"  
"I'm one of the best recruits."  
They carried on in silence.  
"You seem pretty close with them, k-unit I mean"  
"What makes you say that?"  
"You're always less tense around them than any other instructor."  
"I think it's probably because they are new instructors."  
"Actually, that would be a source for even more fear as they would be looking for ways to prove themselves to the sergeant."  
"Are you calling me a liar?" Tom surprised himself with that retort. He was never defensive and always preferred cracking a joke to avoid a subject. But there was something about Falcon that just got on his nerves.  
"No" Falcon said calmly, "I'm merely suggesting that you are ostracising the truth."  
"The only claim that you have to support your statement is that I seem less tense around them. Anything else that made you say something so bold?". What the hell was coming out of his mouth?  
Tom glanced at Falcon and almost missed him recoil as if he was about to say something but stopped himself.  
As if he had leashed himself; as if something had needed leashing.  
Before Tom could comment, He felt a slight shock. It took him a moment to realise.  
"They found the bomb."  
Falcon looked at Jaguar sharply.  
"How'd you know?"  
"It's complicated. I'll tell you afterwards. Just follow me."

The two soldiers efficiently made their way to the location, and managed to diffuse the bomb minutes before time was up.  
And then they had to make it out without triggering any traps.  
It was on their way out that Tom saw it. It was the first time that Tom had actually glanced at Falcon's face throughout the whole ordeal, but when he saw the darting look in his eyes, an image swept over him.  
 _Flashback_  
Tom stared at Alex as his eyes swept across the room, constantly darting from side to side, searching for everything and anything.  
"Stop being so paranoid."  
"It's not called paranoid when there is an actual threat"  
 _Flashback end._

Tom shook his head to dispel the memory. Now wasn't the time for it.  
But even as he focused on the task at hand, he couldn't stop a particular thought from resurfacing.  
He hoped, for all their sakes, that he would just forget about it.  
-


	9. Chapter 9

Three days later, things hadn't improved. In fact, Bear thought,things had gotten worse. Way worse.  
Tension between Falcon and Jaguar had been riding so high that it was almost tangible. They barely spoke to each other, they barely looked at each other, they hardly acknowledged each other's presence.  
Honestly, Bear lived in fear that the sergeant would realise what has been going on and bin them both; neither of them deserved it, but at the rate they were going...  
He didn't want to think about it.  
He didn't even understand why things were so bad between them. At first it was barely noticeable, easily blamed on competition, but it had gradually increased. Obviously it was something greater than petty competition, but what?  
Before they had become one unit, they barely knew each other, yet it had barely been days of them being together when the tensions had risen.  
It made absolutely no sense; it was so bloody frustrating!  
He had wanted to ask Jaguar about it, but there was a strange atmosphere hanging off him. And what would Jaguar say. The truth? Unlikely. Jaguar was obscuring the reason behind the tension, so undoubtedly any explanation that comes out of Jaguar's mouth would be a lie.  
Bear almost wished it was like Badger and Cheetah, that way he wouldn't need to worry about the 'why'.

And it wasn't only that. It looked like it hurt both of them to be near each other. Like it was torturous just be in the other's presence. Falcon looked as if he was strangling himself and Jaguar looked like he had eaten something sour. What the bloody hell was wrong with them?

And to make matters worse, they had bloody medical next. It would be a bloody miracle the day he learnt how to do a proper bloody bandage. And he had a bloody instructor breathing down his bloody neck.

Bloody hell.

Jaguar burst out laughing at Bear's feeble attempt at a bandage. "I'm glad that it's Leopard who will be bandaging me up than you Bear."

"Shut up." Bear growled.

"Awww, did the 'bloody' bandage get the better of you."

"Prick."

"Didn't you get my pun. 'Bloody' as in you always say bloody and bloody as in blood because I'm talking about a bandage. Hahaha.."

Leopard cuffed jaguar, "We got it, We just wanted to give you the opportunity to pick up your pride. We didn't know you'd push it further down."

"That's just mean. My joke was funny."

"Yes and I'm the queen."

"You-"

"Guys" Falcon broke in, "I'd hate to break up this bromance but we have combat next and two instructors are assessing us, so shouldn't we pick up the pace."

"Well said" Bear commented slapping him on the back. "Let's go before Wolf cuts our head off and feeds it to Eagle."

"I'm telling them you said that" Jaguar announced, sprinting away.

"You prick. Come back here" Bear shouted, chasing after him.

Leopard and Falcon shared a glance before shrugging and running after them.

They all burst through the doors of the combat arena, laughing out of breath. "Jaguar, I'm going to kill you." Bear breathed.

"Well let's see if your Bite is as big as your bark. Care to take it to the mat."

"Actually" Eagle declared, interrupting the moment, "today's going to be Bear against Leopard since it will be interesting to see how they tackle each other's weaknesses. That leaves Falcon vs Jaguar."

Instantly, the light atmosphere shattered, replaced with a mountain of tension.

"Is there a problem?" Wolf asked rhetorically.

A moment of hesitance, then Bear answered.

"No sir"

"Good. What are you waiting for?"

Bear glanced at Falcon and jaguar and saw the tension that they tried to cover with nonchalance, and shared a meaningful look with Leopard.

This was not going to end well.

As they faced each other, Bear kept shooting warning looks towards Falcon and Jaguar. He was too busy worrying about his unit mates getting binned to worry about the instructors seeing him worried.

"Begin."

Tom faced Falcon with a great sense of trepidation. They started circling each other, and he wished he would just forget; wished he could just ignore the consuming thoughts in his mind.

They circled with reluctance and hesitance; neither willing to break the first move.

"What are you waiting for?" Wolf growled, "get on with it."

Across the diameter of their imaginary circle, the two locked gaze, simultaneously making the decision.

Falcon attacked first.

He attacked with a sort of desperation, of determination to break free.

And Jaguar returned with the same ferociousness, trying to lose himself in combat as to forget.

It seemed like whatever temporary truce they came to, had liberated them, set their souls free; and they delved into the battle, relishing in the burn of the heat, savouring the speed of the strikes.

It became like a dance. Their limbs moving to the beat of the heart. Increasing with every second. They danced with audacity out of desperation for liberation. They moved with the wildness of hope and despair.

And as they sold their souls to the fight, they willingly lost their identity; allowing themselves to be reborn as free spirits.

They attacked and echos of their flesh hitting flesh resonated across the blissful silence of their minds.

The orchestra of life rose with ferociousness, reaching climax after climax; breaking and moulding in its bone crushing grip.

It became a drug and they were its victims. The feeling of freedom coursing through their blood and into their very hearts.

The failed to remember who they were. They failed to remember who they were up against.

They failed to notice the crowd that had gathered around them.

After Bear had finished his fight- which had been pretty simple since they had both been too worried about the other two-they had turned to watch their fellow unit mates.

They had heard about a person losing themselves in battle, but never had they seen it so literally.

Jaguar and Falcon looked as if their lifeline was suspended with the fight. Their eyes had lost all light, all recognition and they looked as if they were fighting to keep their sanity.

They speed they were attacking made it impossible to see individual moves, each a blinding flash and block, yet it looked as if they weren't even tiring.

This wasn't like Jaguar and leopards fight, laughter dancing in the middle. It was a scary sensation to watch two professionals fight with such wildness and recklessness yet still make the rest of them look like amateurs.

Each move was precise yet made with a sort of blindness, as if they didn't care where it hit, as along as it hit.

The two instructors were openly staring, as if they had never seen people fight like that. And other soldiers had gathered round to watch. All mesmerised by art performed before them.

It seemed almost accidental when Jaguar stroke Falcon on the temple, causing him to drop like a rock. Unconscious.

Jaguar took a few steps back, as moments of insanity wore off, then too collapsed on the floor, breathing hard and eyes wide.


	10. Chapter 10

Leopard was the first to move out of the audience, and rushed to Falcon.

Wolf and Eagle broke out of their thoughts next and the the rest of the soldiers came back to reality.

"Shark" wolf ordered, "help Leopard take Falcon to the infirmary. Everyone else, off the to your lessons you maggots. If your next instructor binns you for being late then it's you're necks on the line. Move it!"

Safe to say, they all scattered away..

All apart from Jaguar, who slowly, uncertainly rose to his feet.

"Apart from you Jaguar?"

Tom nodded silently.

Once they had all left, Wolf stepped in front of Tom.  
"What just happened?" He growled.  
Tom just stared at the ground, not knowing what to say.  
"I asked you a question."  
"I heard you." Tom replied recklessly.

Wolf growled. "Don't play smart with me. What happened just then?"

Jaguar stared blankly at Wolf.

"Falcon and I fought like you told us."

"Jaguar" Wolf growled, "the way you fought just now could have easily got you binned. You were reckless and stupid and uncoordinated. Your attacks were messy and uncontrolled. You were not focused on the fight and on the field, that could just as easily get you killed. You have never fought like that before. What happened during this fight?"

Tom glared at Wolf.

"I was trying out a new technique-"

"Bull! You clearly know that the way you just fought was the worst you have ever done."

"I was just experimenting with my-"

"Cut the crap. You know full well that you lost it with Falcon."

"Well if you already know then why are you asking."

"Because I waiting for you to tell me why" wolf growled.

Tom remained silent.

"Jaguar." Wolf warned.

"I'm not going to tell you."

"How old do you think you are? You know you could be binned for acting in such a way."

"Then go ahead and bin me" Tom exploded, "stop threatening me and do it already. I'm tired of you interrogating me. There is no obligation for me to tell you everything that is going on in my head, and you have no right to force it out of me. So go ahead and bin me if you think that's what I deserve. Go ahead and-"

"Jaguar" Wolf cut in with quiet malice. "Keep your tongue in check. You are not 18 anymore. You are a soldier, bordering on SAS recruit. You are too old to be having temper tantrums and such lack of control over your anger. One more outburst from you and I will bin you. That's not a threat, that is a promise. Do you understand?"

"Yes" Tom said quietly, scolded.

"Yes what?"

"Yes sir" he saluted.

Wolf just glared and walked away.

A few seconds of silence later, and Eagle stepped forward.

Tom looked at him expectantly..

"What's going on Tom?"  
Tom's gaze dropped to the floor.  
"Nothing" he mumbled.  
"It sure doesn't look like nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"Stop playing the ignorant card. It won't work."

Tom remained silent, staring stubbornly at the floor.  
"What's happening between you and Falcon? Lately you've been all tense around each other, and it's seriously affecting your performance. You look like you're barely getting enough sleep."

Eagle paused to give Tom and opportunity to speak.

He remained silent.

"Wolf was right when he said that fighting the way you just did would get you killed on the field. It seemed like you were completely out of it. Both you and Falcon. There were clear opportunities were both of you left yourself defenceless yet neither of you striked. It looked like you were just exchanging blows. You were using killer blows at the wrong moment, aimed at places where they were ineffective. It seemed like you didn't even care."

He paused again, waiting for a response, but was disappointed.

"Tom just say something. Anything. Just one sentence of explanation for what is going on."

There was a long pause, in which Eagle remained waiting, patient for a reply.

"Tom-"

"He reminds me of him."

Eagle did a double take.

"What?!"

"He reminds me of Alex." He repeated then spun around.

"Wait!" Eagle exclaimed grabbing his arm.

"Let go." Tom said coldly.

"Tom, what do you mean by 'he reminds you of Alex'"

"I didn't mean anything. You asked a question and I answered it. Now let go of me," he pulled away but Eagle kept a tight grip.

"Are you saying that you think…"

Tom knew what Eagle asking. Did he think that Falcon may be Alex. Tom knew what he thought, and what he wanted to be true, yet he still found himself shaking his head.

"No, I don't think so."

Finally, Eagle relaxed his grip and he pulled away, walking out.

He walked out too fast that he missed Bear, who was pressed flat against the wall, having stayed back to wait for Tom and overheard something he shouldn't have.

Bear reared his eyes away from Jaguar to look at the instructor.  
What he saw was the instructor, standing stock still, his eyes widened with shock, staring at Jaguars retreating figure.


	11. Chapter 11

Tom slowed down his marching as he neared the edge of the lake. Gods, it had been both a relief and a burden to reveal the truth to Eagle. By uttering those god-damned words, he had cemented the thoughts- that until now had been figments of his mind.

Now they were real. He could no longer ignore them. He could no longer dismiss them as imaginary.

But he no longer had to keep them to himself.

Honestly, he hoped this was all a dream and he would wake up, still in l-unit with Cheetah screaming in his face and Hawk laughing in the background.

It was just Falcon. When he had told Eagle that Falcon reminded him of Alex; he knew Eagle would understand. Knew Eagle would understand the hidden meaning behind the words. Knew because, during the last seven years, any feeling or subtle instinct that had them thinking about Alex, was a possible lead, was a possible Alex. That man running across the tv screen from a factory that had been blown up, had ran the same way as Alex. That man who looked like Alex. That man who smiled like Alex. They all were investigated. All were possible leads.

All were dead ends.

So when he had said those words, he had know the conclusion that Eagle would draw, had wanted him to draw those conclusions.

Wanted to let Eagle know that, yes, his instincts were screaming at him.

But also wanted Eagle to realise that his hesitance meant that he was afraid. Afraid of finding out the truth. Fearing both, being proven right and being proven wrong.

That's why he had wanted to forget these thoughts. There were no advantages or benefits to them. No matter what the turn out, the consequences would be cataclysmic.

It was one of those rare moments when the thoughts in your heads are roaring so loudly, that at a moment's pause, you realise how eerily quiet everything is.

The only sounds was that of the wilderness. All soldiers were in their lessons, and it seemed none had swimming in this part of the lake.

The lake was practically unmoving and the birds had been daring enough to try out their voices.

But it wasn't beautiful as one might expect. That lack of humans; it was scary and haunting and unnatural.

Backing away slowly, Tom headed for the infirmary, where he hoped the rest of his team were.

He hoped Bear and Leopard wouldn't ask too many question- scratch that, he hoped they wouldn't ask any questions. Because he wouldn't know any answers anyway.

Wondering around the infirmary looking for anybody, he spotted Leopard walking away.

"Hey leopard!", he shouted.

Turning around, Leopard raised his hand in greeting.

"Jaguar"

"How's Falcon?" He asked, coming to a stop.

"He's fine. Should be waking up any minute."

"That's good."

"The final blow you gave him" he carried on, "any higher, and it could have been fatal."

There was a strange undercurrent tone to his speech, Tom noted.

"Thankfully it wasn't." He replied, not knowing what else to say.

"It's strange" he said, and Tom did not like his tone one bit. "The way you and Falcon fought."

"How so?"

"I dunno. It looked professional yet artistic. There was none of the common roughness of a fight. It looked like you were dancing instead of fighting. Your moves were smooth and insync. It looked choreographed."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing. I'm just stating an observation."

There was a beat of silence, and then-

"Do you know Falcon?" Leopard asked, and his tone was slightly dangerous.

"Obviously" Tom said, trying to make a joke to break the tension. "We're in the same unit."

It didn't work.

"I mean from before you joined the SAS."

"No. Falcon and I met at camp."

Leopard's eyes narrowed slightly.

It was fleeting, but Tom got the sense he was being x-rayed by his teammate.

After a moment of scrutinisation, Leopard dropped seriousness and smiled.

"Just curious. You guys seemed to know each other. Must've just been me. Anyway, we should go to Falcon. He's waking up any moment."

Leopard starting waking and Tom just stared at him in shock and confusion.

"Are you coming?"

"Yeah." Tom said, shaking his head, 'wait for me.'

They rounded the corner and Leopard stopped dead in his tracks.

"He's done it again" he sighed, "god damn him, he's done it again."

"Done what?"

"He escaped", Leopard said pointing to the slightly ajar door revealing an empty room.

"He escaped from the infirmary? before?" Jaguar asked skeptically.

"Every single time. I don't think he's ever been conscious in the infirmary for more than 7 seconds. We timed it. Cheetah had to knock him unconscious every time we decided he needed to go." Leopard shook his head, smiling slightly.

"Are you actually serious?" Jaguar said grinning. "You had to knock him unconscious."

"Believe it or Not. When I find him, I'm going to kill him."

"I'll be an enthusiastic spectator."

"Care to join me on a hunt?" Leopard said, extending his hand.

"Why Leopard, I thought you'd never ask."

The grinned at each other, then following Falcon's lead, then jumped out of the window and begun their hunt.

—-

20 minutes later they met back at their cabin.

"No sign of him?" Leopard asked.

"None."

"Where the hell could he have gone?!"

"Where does he usually go?" Jaguar asked, "like when he's escaped the infirmary before?"

Leopard shrugged, "don't actually know, he usually just turns up."

Tom suddenly had a thought, "I'll go check the lake."

"I already checked, but it won't hurt to check again."

"Meet back in 20 minutes?"

"20 minutes."

Tom turned away and started jogging, but instead of going to lake he walked to where the huts were built.

As he neared, he slowed down to a slow walk.

'What the hell was he thinking?'

He knew the answer. He wasn't thinking properly, that was the problem. He knew where to look for Falcon. But did he want to? If he found Falcon, he would be confirming the thoughts in his head. Did he want to do that? Of course not.

He stopped and was about to walk away, but paused. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't afraid of his own thoughts. Was he?

He shook his head.

He walked in between the cabins and looked up.

—

'Flashback'

" _Alex, what the hell are you doing up there?" Tom yelled at his best friend who seemed to be lying on a tree branch, "I've been looking for you for hours."_

" _I've been here the whole time." Alex said with a grin._

" _That's not possible, I've looked in this park about 7 times."_

" _You see, my dead friend," Alex said, jumping down, "the problem with people is that when searching, we look left right and down. We search every inch, but we forget to look up. So the best place to hide is somewhere high up and it don't matter if you're in plane sight because no one will look up."_

" _Thanks for the life lesson I didn't ask for(!) now can we please go back to playing footie._ "

-flashback end-

'We always forget to look up', Tom whispered to himself, and as soon as he turned a 360, he saw Falcon lying flat on the roof of the sergeant's cabin.

He froze.

No-

He refused to believe it-

But he had to-

Right there. Evidence-

But that didn't mean-

There was no other explanation-

Oh god.

Dread settled at the pit of his stomach. He couldn't take this anymore. These thoughts were really getting to him. He had to forget about them. He had to focus on selection. He couldn't be wandering about anything else.

But at the same time…

No, he couldn't afford to think like that. There was no connection between Falcon and Alex.

Looking up, he made eye contact with Falcon, who winked and dropped down off the roof.

"Didn't expect anyone to find me." He smiled when he had reached Jaguar.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he replied, "a friend once told me to always look up when searching."

So much for that thought.

It definitely did not help that a shadow moved behind falcons eyes.

Maybe he was just annoyed at being caught.

"That friend of yours must have had a lot of experience with looking for someone." The statement seemed innocent but the tone behind it was dangerously curious.

"Yh, you could say that." He said evasively.

And they were back to their tense atmosphere. Gosh it was getting annoying. Why couldn't he be normal for once?

"Falcon! Jaguar!"

They whirled around and saw Leopard signalling then and jogged over.

"Hey Leo-"

"Don't you dare' hey Leo' me Falcon" Leopard interrupted furiously, "I can't believe you ran away again!"

Falcon rubbed his neck sheepishly, "I wouldn't call it running away-"

"Well then what would you call it?"

"Tactical retreat?"

Leopard stared at him and blinked. Once. Twice.

Tom couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. "Oh my gosh, I'd never thought I'd see the day when Leopard's lost for words."

"Shut up Jaguar. Let's go, Bear's probably wondering where the hell we are."

"Oh yeah! Bear! Our esteemed team leader. How could we forget about him?"

"Don't let him hear you say that" Leopard warned jokingly.

"Roger that."

They walked on for a few seconds in silence.

"Oh wait!" Leopard exclaimed, "I completely forgot, I heard that the new set of recruits are starting tomorrow."

Both Falcon and jaguar flipped their heads towards him.

"What?!"

"Yeah, I know. It seems like just yesterday we were recruits,treated like dirt by the other soldiers" Leopard mused.

"Actually" Falcon pointed out, "we're still recruits."

"But we're not treated like dirt anymore. We've been here for 8 weeks. I can't wait to see the new recruits, it's going to be revenge time" he finished rubbing his hands together.

Falcon and Jaguar made eye contact, instantly averting their gazes.

Leopard wasn't as stupid as he pretended to be. In fact he was much, much smarter than he acted, and noticed much more.

So the little exchange, or lack thereof, between Falcon and jaguar didn't go unnoticed, so he hung back a little to analyse them.

To a stranger, the two would seem like normal teammates, though slightly more professional with each other, but to Leopard, it was much more than that. He could practically see the barrier between them, made up of tension and awkwardness. It was clear from how little amount of contact they made, and even when they did make contact, they both drew back reflexively, as if stung.

Leopard had known Falcon for quite sometime , and never had he seen, or expected Falcon to act this unnaturally, he narrowed his eyes at Jaguar's back. Who was Jaguar to make Falcon act like this? Whatever happened, he would never let Jaguar get in the way of their success.

"Hurry up Leopard," Falcon Shouted, "we don't want to keep Bear waiting any longer."

"Coming."


	12. Chapter 12

Eagle watched Tom leave with sadness. It always hurt to see the natural joyness in Tom reduced to such seriousness. It just wasn't right.

And the way Wolf had dealt with Tom was too harsh.

How could he not see how horrible Tom looked, how devastated? Eagle was going to knock some sense to him even if he had to physically bash his head against the wall.

With that thought in mind, he marched out of the combat area and in search of Wolf.

When he had finally spotted him, he pulled him aside, quite violently in fact, ignoring his shouts of protest, and into an empty area.

"What the hell Eagle?! You-"

"Shut it. I don't want to hear it."

Usually, if anybody had cut off Wolf so disrespectful, he would have ripped their heads off, but when Eagle did it, it meant that he had something very, very important to say and wasn't bothered to deal with Wolf's bull

"What's wrong?" He asked instead, mainly to fill in the silence while Eagle formed a sentence in his rage.

Eagle's eyes flashed in anger.

"You're asking me what's wrong?! Take a look at yourself-"

"What-"

"Are you so blind as to not see what Tom's going through-"

"What do you mean-"

"You just go rage at him without stopping for a moment to think, 'why would Tom even act like that in the first place?' You've known Tom, for what-7 years- yet you don't notice how tired he's looked these days, how withdrawn?" He paused for breath.

"I thought it was because of training-"

"And the way you scolded him for his fight with Falcon. Did you not stop to think that we have never, ever seen Tom fight like that in the years we'd trained him. He's never fought so recklessly or dangerously. Did you not think that something was perhaps was wrong with Tom? That perhaps he was hurting? But no! Our mighty leader doesn't think twice before-"

"Oh(!)," there was only so much talking down to that Wolf could take, "And you're so all-knowing huh?(!) In that case go ahead, tell me what I've missed, because you standing there pointing out my mistakes isn't going to help."

"Don't you dare take this sarcastically! This is Tom we're talking about. If you don't care-"

"Don't you dare say that I don't care about Tom-"

"Well your actions say otherwise-"

"I was protecting his career-"

"You were destroying him. Do you want to know why he's been like this lately-"

"Stop hanging it in front of me and just tell me already!" He shouted, anger breaking over the last word.

Eagle paused, seeing he had pushed Wolf to his limit.

"Tom said," his normal voice sounded like a whisper after their previous shouting, "that Falcon reminded him of Alex."

The expression on wolf's face was almost comical. His eyes widened and his mouth made an 'oh' sound, and then understanding, guilt and regret rippled his features.

"Impossible" he whispered.

Eagle felt a small amount of satisfaction, at last he had made Wolf see sense.

"Did he mean that-"

Eagle shook his head. "He said no-"

"But he's never-"

"He said no-"

"But that's never stopped-"

"Wolf, he said no."

"I don't understand. He's never said no, like ever. The tiniest hint, the tiniest instinct would have him balancing on hope for days. Something like this should-"

"I know Wolf."

"Well you seem to know everything, then tell me, why did Tom say no?"

Eagle didn't answer.

"Well go on then"

A pause. And then-

"I don't know."

Wolf was taken aback. That was a surprise. Eagle didn't know? Eagle always knew, he had an answer to everything, no matter how crazy or stupid. He never once said 'I don't know'.

Until now.

"I just… don't know"

Wolf looked Eagle directly in the eye.

"Well then-"

He froze, staring at something over Eagle's shoulder.

"What? What'd you see?" Eagle asked spinning around.

"I think," he said slowly, and very dangerously, "that someone's been watching us."

—-

Bear froze as Wolf made eye contact with him.

He was dead meat.

God, he had been so stupid to trail the instructor, but how could he not when he heard what he did. His brain had been whirling with questions and his legs propelled him forward before he realised what he was doing.

Slowly, with great trepidation, he moved out from behind the hut. He thought about making a joke but realised that silence was the best course of action.

He kept walking until he stood a respectful distance from the instructors, both of who had unreadable expressions on their faces.

He dismissed any excuse that came to his mind. He was guilty as charged.

"Bear" Wolf said coldly.

He stood at attention, "yes sir".

"What do you think you're doing?"

Oh god, his heart was beating unnaturally fast and he could feel the sweat building between his fingers. He couldn't think of anything to say. There was nothing he could say.

"I'm waiting."

He was binned anyway, what was the point in lying?

"I…" he paused, clearing his throat. Was there no excuse he could make, nothing to save the career he'd been working so hard for.

"Are you going to say anything?" Wolf growled.

This was it, he had no excuse whatsoever.

"I stayed behind and overheard-"

He cut himself off when he saw the instructors freeze.

"So you eavesdropped" Wolf sneered after a beat of silence , "And decided to follow Eagle here, thinking yourself some spy maggot?"

"No sir"

This is it, Bear was done for, he just waited for the axe to fall.

"Wolf stop it" Eagle interrupted. Though Eagle didn't appreciate being spied on, he didn't want to see a recruit with such potential binned. "Clearly Bear was just curious"

"Curiosity has no place in the SAS" Wolf growled.

"That's bull and you know it" Eagle fired back

Bear watched the two instructors wide-eyed, but when Wolf didn't reply, he felt their attention shift to him and immediately snapped to attention.

"Just act like the last 10 minutes never happened," Eagle said, "And we'll do the same."

"Yes sir"

"Dismissed."

Relieved beyond compare, yet unable to believe his luck, Bear saluted and turned away in the general direction of his hut.

As he escaped the vision on the instructors, he slowed his pace and let his thoughts focus. What he had heard went beyond his comprehension. First and foremost, it was clear that the instructors knew Jaguar from before SAS. The most obvious connection was that Jaguar was a family member of one of the instructors. But that didn't seem right. One was Essex, one was Hispanic, if he included Snake and Fox, one was Scottish and the last was a Londoner. He knew Jaguar had grown up in Chelsea so perhaps he was related to Fox? But that didn't connect. Jaguar looked nothing like fox.

Perhaps they were friends?

' _You've know Tom-for what?-seven years'_

Eagle's word flowed back to him. Seven years ago, Tom had been a teenager. If Bear's math was correct, Tom would have been 16, 17 and the instructors would have been well into their training. Where would have seasoned SAS soldiers befriended a teenager? _How_ would a teenager befriend SAS soldiers- and incited such care in their stone hearts? Because that was definitely worry in Eagle's voice when he raged at Wolf.

' _We've never seen Tom fight like that in the years that we've trained him_ '

That caused Bear to pause. It was obvious, K-unit had trained Jaguar. It explained Jaguar's familiarity with the training and rules. Yet it was still hard to believe that k-unit knew Jaguar at such a personal level. There was never a hint or clue during their training that gave them away. Though perhaps now that he knew, he'd recognise the tell-tale signs.

And then came perhaps the most shocking of discoveries.

' _Did you not think that something was perhaps was wrong with Tom? That perhaps he was hurting_?'

Bear had noticed something amiss with Jaguar, but he had assumed it was due to the pressure of selection: lately he'd been finishing his food earlier, waking up earlier and sleeping later than usual.

But now that Bear thought about it, Jag had been acting relatively strange. For example, he was rarely ever found alone. Sure Jag was popular among the soldiers, but he had usually enjoyed walking alone or in silence to ' _enjoy and contemplate the gift of life_ ' as he had once put it, but the past two weeks, he never saw Jaguar quiet or alone, as if he was afraid to be left alone with his own thoughts.

Bear shook his head. Maybe he was overthinking it too much. Maybe Jaguar just realised how much he enjoyed talking to other soldiers?

But that just didn't sound right.

" _Falcon reminded him of Alex._ " The words came flowing back to Bear.

Was this the same thing that had caused Jaguar to stumble in shock all those weeks ago during that spat between Cheetah and Lion?

What had Jag said at the time?

" _Falcon looked like someone I know…"_

He knew that Jaguar was hiding something.

" _My best friend was kidnapped seven years ago…_ "

Was Alex this 'best friend'? At the time Bear has known that Jaguar really did not want to talk about it, but in avoiding the topic, he had revealed more than he intended.

It was clear that the scars of losing his best friend ran deep in Jaguar, but it didn't make sense, what had caused such an absurd reaction.

Falcon and Jaguar has been in the same camp for weeks, so what happened that time?

Bear shook his head to clear all the thoughts as he approached s-unit's hut. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about those kind of questions. He should be grateful for not being binned rather than thinking about stuff that could get him binned.


End file.
